Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Burpee Pole Bean and Pea Tower

I'm having a bit of frustrating fun with the Burpee gardening supply company. Here is a product that I am interested in: Pole Bean and Pea Tower. As you can see on the website, the height is 6' and it takes up 5 square feet. But they are missing a useful piece of information: the diameter. I know that the base is a circle and I know that this can be calculated, but I sent a note to the company asking for the diameter because, heck, they should know their own products! Here's a transcript of the responses that I've received from 2 folks (Sharon and Pam) in Customer Service:

My initial query: "Greetings! Could you please tell me the diameter of this product: Pole Bean And Pea Tower (Product number 91439). Thank you, Laurie"

Response from Sharon: "The Pea and pole bean tower pole is 6 foot high. The nylon string comes down to use only 5 square feet."

My response: "Thanks for the reply, but I didn't ask for the height. I asked for the diameter. Do you have this information? I want to determine if it will fit into my raised beds."

Response from Pam: "The pea tower is 5 square feet in diameter."

My latest reply: "I'm disappointed that you are not understanding my question, or basic geometry. "Square feet" is an area. "Diameter" is the length of a straight line that would be from one side of the circle to the other side. You guys should know your products better than this. Can't you have someone measure it if you don't have the product information handy? Which, I might add, should be on the product description page of your website."

In the meantime, I've already used an online calculator to determine the diameter using the known area of the circle, and I've determined that the diameter is about 2 1/2 feet. This will fit into my raised beds, barely. However, I'm going to see if I can get them to eventually understand what a diameter is and correctly answer my question. After all, they are Customer Service and they should be able to answer such a simple question.

I'll post their next response, which will probably be in a day or two. Or maybe their heads will blow up and I won't hear from them.

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